One Hundred Shadows

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INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!

Han Kang’s Human Acts meets Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police in this understated South Korean novella in translation: a restrained yet emotional magical realist examination of futility in a capitalist society written in response to the 2009 Yongsan Disaster.

In a Seoul slum marked for demolition, residents’ shadows have begun to rise. No one knows how or why–but, they warn each other, do not follow your shadow if it wanders away. 

As the landscape of their lives is torn apart, building by building, electronics-repair-shop employees Eungyo and Mujae can only watch as their community begins to fade. Their growing connection with one another provides solace, but against an uncaring ruling class and the inevitability of the rising shadows, their relationship may not be enough. 

Winner of the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award and the Korean Bookseller’s Award, One Hundred Shadows is a tender working-class perspective with subtle and affecting social commentary. This edition features an introduction by Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Vegetarian, Han Kang, a historical note about the Yongsan tragedy that inspired One Hundred Shadows, and an exclusive interview with the author.Praise for One Hundred Shadows

“There is an unforgettable, curious beauty to be found here.” —Han Kang, Winner of the Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian

“Affecting… It’s rare for a story to be so dense in social meaning yet so lightly composed” —The Nation

“The South Korean’s first novel — and her first to be translated into English — is mesmerizing and surreal.” —Vulture’s “15 Must-Read Translated Books From the Past 5 Years”

“Hwang Jungeun’s One Hundred Shadows is too odd to be this tender, and too sharply materialist to be this mystical, and too lyrical to be this gritty… The novel’s symbols are as compelling as they are opaque, and it sucked me up and spat me out a different person.” —Literary Hub’s “18 Books to Read this October”

“I’ve never read anything quite like One Hundred Shadows… experimental fiction at its finest.” —April Magazine

“Haunting… subtle but potent… a delicately-structured critique of capitalism.” —3:AM Magazine

“Hwang Jungeun’s One Hundred Shadows is too odd to be this tender, and too sharply materialist to be this mystical, and too lyrical to be this gritty… The novel’s symbols are as compelling as they are opaque, and it sucked me up and spat me out a different person.” —Literary Hub’s “18 Books to Read this October”

“Jung Yewon’s flawless translation breathes an eerie afterlife into a capitalist ghost story.” —Anton Hur, International Booker Prize finalist for the translation of Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

“Eloquent, dreamlike and haunting, One Hundred Shadows is both strange and beautiful. This story will linger in your mind long after the last page.” —June Hur, Edgar Award–winning author of The Red Palace

“Ghostly . . . A mysterious place of pilgrimage.” —Sofia Samatar, World Fantasy Award–winning author of A Stranger in Olondria

“Deceptively delicate . . . Hwang Jungeun’s social critique devastates with its artful subtlety and fantastical glimmers that haunt the novel with compassionate, mournful beauty.” —Angela Mi Young Hur, author of FolklornHwang Jungeun, born in 1976,  is one of the bright young things of Korean literature, having published two collections of short stories and three novels to date. One Hundred Shadows (2010), her first novel, is both a critical and commercial international success; its mix of oblique fantasy, hard-edge social critique, and offbeat romance garnered the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award and the Korean Booksellers’ Award.

Jung Yewon is the translator of One Hundred Shadows, by Hwang Jung-eun. She is also the translator of No One Writes Back by Jang Eun-jin and one of the co-translators of A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories by Jung Young Moon, both published by Dalkey Archive as part of their Library of Korean Literature series. Her translation of Jung Young Moon’s Vaseline Buddha is published by Deep Vellum.US

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